MONSTER ENERGY YAMAHA MOTOGP RETURN TO TEXAS TO THE AMERICA GRAND PRIX
Austin, Texas, September 29, 2021
The Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP team is traveling to America for the 16th Grand Prix on the MotoGP calendar in 2021. Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli are both looking forward to driving the Circuit of The Americas (COTA) again for the first time since April 2019.
The Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team heads to Austin, Texas in the United States of America for a single fly-away race before tackling the three GPs of the final European stage. After the positive results of the MotoGP test at the Misano Circuit last week, both Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli are fully motivated to strive for top results.
Quartararo arrives at the Circuit of The Americas (COTA) and holds the lead in the championship with 48 points clear and four races to go, including this weekend’s encounter. A racer through and through, El Diablo is determined to maintain his all-or-nothing winning mentality for the upcoming head-to-head race in Austin, Texas.
In his first year at COTA in 2015, the Frenchman immediately took second place in the Moto3 class, his only podium so far on this track. He rode a MotoGP motorcycle only once in Austin in April 2019, finishing seventh. With the experience he has since gained on the M1, he is confident that he can fight for top positions this time around.
Morbidelli is fortunate to have escaped injury after a few falls in the Misano test last week. The following days off gave him time to refuel and he is looking forward to trying the Factory YZR-M1 on a different track and continuing the positive outcome of the test.
The Italian is currently in 17th place in the championship with 40 points, but not the overall ranking, but the feeling after his rehab phase is his main goal this weekend. Always ready for a challenge, Morbidelli is a fan of the tricky Austin circuit and expects to do laps there. His best results include his 2017 win in the Moto2 class and fifth place in the premier class with Yamaha in 2019.
The Circuit of The Americas (COTA), built in 2013, is one of the newest on the calendar and was added to the Grand Prix schedule that same year. Its length of 5513 m and the mixture of fast straights and tight hairpin bends make the route both challenging and exciting to master for teams and drivers alike. You have to find exactly the right balance for setting up the bike for the 11 left and 9 right turns in combination with the 1,200 m straight in order to get a place on the podium. The particularly sharp Turn 1 will be a place where fans can expect a lot of overtaking actions both at the start and during the race.
If you want to remember the layout of COTA, you can refresh your memory with this eSport video.
MASSIMO MEREGALLI
TEAM DIRECTOR
Our team is really excited to be returning to Austin. While it’s one of the more complicated tracks, it’s a place that we always feel very welcome and that our crew really enjoy. This year it’s even more special because we couldn’t race here in 2020 so we’re determined to put on a good show this weekend. The layout of this track is a bit tricky and in theory maybe not the best for our bike, but our team has taken a lot of podiums here in recent years. We know Fabio wants to keep racing race after race and focus on top results, so our goal will be another podium with him. At Franky, we saw improvements in the Misano test. For him the goal this weekend will be to keep doing laps on the bike and improving his feeling like he did. If they get off to a good start on Friday, we should have a nice race weekend ahead of us.
FABIO QUARTARARO
We start the race weekend in Austin with a 48 point lead, followed by three more races, so my mentality remains the same as in Misano. Originally, my goal was not to think about the championship until the San Marino GP, but I decided to hold on to it. I think that’s right for me: to be in the moment and fight for victory when I can. In Misano, it almost caused my mom to have a heart attack and my dad must have enjoyed it a lot. At the beginning of the year I had the idea “whether I fight for the championship or not, I want to win”. It was like that at Misano and I want it to stay that way.
FRANCO MORBIDELLI
I like driving in Austin. It’s a tough and difficult track, but I really like it. In 2019, the last time we competed there with MotoGP, I had a good result. I hope to be there to improve the feel of the bike and improve my overall performance. We took a really good step on the Misano test. I definitely had more feeling in the last lap on day 2 than in the first laps on day 1. That is positive. We’re moving forward and trying to improve as quickly as possible.